


home for the holidays

by Murf1307



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alex Summers Has Issues With Himself, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bisexual Male Character, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Coming Out, Darwin is Alive, First Kiss, Fix-It, Homophobic Language, I Promise This is Actually Fluff, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Mistletoe, No Beach Divorce, POV Bisexual Character, POV Character of Color, POV Third Person Limited, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 22:12:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5718931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas Eve, 1962.  Every now and then, everything is going to be just fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	home for the holidays

**Author's Note:**

> this was written in response to the prompt 'alex/darwin -- 'why the heck aren't we making out?'
> 
> i apologize for how navel-gazey and Period Gay Issues it got.
> 
> more notes at the end!

Armando doesn’t know, sometimes, how all this sort of thing happens.He barely remembers dying, the sharp white flare of it crashing against the warm, expanding, inexorable movement of Alex’s plasma outward from his stomach where Shaw dropped it.

But he does remember everything since the beach, since Cuba.Sure, Charles and Erik are could be on better terms with each other, but they brought Angel home that day, and Shaw’s corpse is deep, deep at the bottom of the ocean, in pieces, just for safekeeping.That much is enough, and Armando thinks, as he cracks his neck and smiles out at the snow falling over the backyard of the mansion, that much is something to go on.

Having something to go on is, good, too, because it means he gets to float around Alex’s orbit again — and this time, Alex gets to know he’s there.

Sometimes, though, gravity goes the other way, and Armando can feel Alex shifting in toward him like _he’s_ the sturdy one.

Armando’s only been solid again for two months, and even that was sort of intermittent.It’s _hard_ , remembering how to hold a body together, and he knows that Hank and Raven are curious, so curious about how that works — especially Hank, changed man that he is.

Nevertheless, tomorrow is Christmas, and gravity’s pulling Alex closer.It’s one of those nights, Armando thinks.Maybe Alex needs him to be solid tonight.

Alex, right now, is in the kitchen, but Armando can feel him.It’s an after-effect, he thinks, of being anchored to him, in some ways sharing a skull with him for three whole months before he could pull himself back together and fight.He can _feel_ Alex, in a way he’s not sure he could before.

Though, really, who knows?Before, they’d been drawn together anyway.

Armando shifts, a smile pulling at the edge of his mouth.Drawn together, like Armando’s hand on Alex’s chest, his ribs, seeking out heat because he knows, bone deep, that Alex will know what to do with what he’s not saying.Drawn together like Alex not getting it at first but following anyway, eyes blue as the sky and trusting him, trusting _this_.

It saved them, in the end.Maybe it saved everyone, just took awhile.

After all, they brought Angel home, and Shaw is dead.

Still.This thing.Their thing, it’s different now.Like Alex was expecting to spend the rest of his life moving on from it, and doesn’t know what to do now that he doesn’t have to. 

Hesitant, that’s the word.Two bodies, like planets, trapped in orbit around each other, but Alex doesn’t know how to make it still.

Armando knows what would, on his end.His lips tingle with the idea of that, like his body’s already adapting for what it would feel like, to have Alex’s mouth on his.

He’s honest enough with himself to admit he wants that.Not honest enough with Alex to tell him so, though.this thing, their thing might not survive it, and their thing is what let _them_ survive this, survive everything so far.

Not just Armando’s mutation.Armando’d still be a billion screaming atoms, a consciousness without a body, dormant and barely alive, floating out into space, if not for Alex, his warmth, the living plasma burn of him, something instinctive to fly to.

No idea how to tell him that, though. _I’m whole because you gave me something to hold_.It’s too sappy, and Alex would hate it more than he’d appreciate it.

And here’s Alex.Coming out to this little balcony, cup of eggnog in his hand, and Armando wants to touch him.He always does.

Gravity.

“Hey,” is all he says, instead, easy smile not in the least bit a lie.

“Hey.”Alex’s smile, quick, sharp, secret, is more than enough in response.“So.Christmas, huh?”

“Ah-huh,” Armando agrees.“Tomorrow.”

Alex’s smile falters a little, and he leans on the balcony rail.“Funny how none of us have somewhere else to be, huh?”

That’s the thing, the other thing — Armando can see how much Alex wants to be cared about, how much he needs what this whole group is becoming.Family.Armando hasn’t had much of one, himself, but he gets it, gets wanting it.

Alex, though, Alex thinks this is the only way he could ever get it.Circumstance, and if anyone had any other option, they’d be gone.

It’s bullshit, but Armando doesn’t know how to say it.

“Well, Sean coulda gone home to Ireland,” Armando says, offering.“But he’s in there.”

Alex nods.“Yeah.I guess you’re right.”

“I think it’s all right, though,” Armando adds.“Just because fate threw us all together doesn’t mean any of us can’t walk away.”

It’s half bullshit, if he's honest.Hank can’t leave the house, Angel’d have to go back to stripping, and, frankly, living off Xavier’s dime is a lot nicer than driving a cab.Raven’s always lived here, and Sean’s a minor, and Alex might wind up back in prison.

The other options aren’t great.He knows that.

But he also knows that, even with everything that’s happened, he’d choose this.He’d make every choice exactly the same, so he got right here.Just like this.

And he wants Alex to know that, too.

He shifts a little closer, trying to make the gravity tilt in his favor again.“You got a family, somewhere out there?”

Alex’s mouth twitches out a little frown.“Don’t know.Had a sister, we got separated in foster care.Haven’t been able to find her.Probably won’t ever.”

“Still,” Armando says, fingertips brushing the point of Alex’s elbow.“She might be thinking the same thing you are, wherever she is.”

Alex swallows.“Thanks, Darwin,” he says, quietly, and he smiles, just a little.

“Anytime.”His own answering smile is a bit bigger.“Wanna go inside?”

“Yeah, sure.”

They wander in, shoulder to shoulder.It’s going to drive him off his head someday, he thinks, if he never gets up the guts to do something about what could be between them.

They get to the kitchen, which is warm and yellow with light.The rest are gathered there, in pairs or little clumps.Someone’s got a Hannukah sweater on Erik, and he and Angel are giving each other long-suffering looks over everyone else’s heads.

Armando smiles at the scene, but then, Raven bursts out laughing.

“Hey, Alex, Darwin,” Sean says, a smirk on his face.“You might wanna look up.”

Armando does, and good god, there’s mistletoe hanging from the doorframe.They’ve been set up, judging by the looks on everyone’s faces, and Armando isn’t sure whether to laugh or get ugly mad about it.

Alex seems to go with bloodless shock, judging by his face when he realizes the situation.

Armando skates his fingertips against Alex’s hip.“Hey, it’s just mistletoe.”

He doesn’t know what a kiss could do to what they have between them, but it’s all a joke being played on them, anyway, so it’s not like kissing now is admitting much of anything.“You okay, hotshot?”

“I —“Alex closes his mouth, clenches his jaw, and does the last thing Armando expects:

He grabs Armando’s face in his hands and pulls him down for a kiss — and not jokey one, either; this kiss is hard, sharp, feels almost impossibly good impossibly fast, and Armando only doesn’t pull him closer because it ends almost as soon as it starts.

That, and, well, because Alex follows it up by bolting down the hallway.

Armando stands in confused, achey surprise as the rest of the group is utterly silent.

“Well,” Angel says, raising her eyebrows after a moment.“That looks like it meant something.”

Thank god for Angel, really, he’s going to have to get her something real nice for her birthday, because that’s what gets him moving again, chasing.

He finds Alex right before Alex moves to go into his bedroom.“Alex, wait.”

Alex looks pissed when he does look back.“What the hell do you want?”

“An explanation would be nice.That was —“

“Don’t.”Alex sighs, lets the door close in front of him.“Don’t tell me what it was.”

Armando lets out an almost exasperated sigh.“I was kind of hoping that that’s what _you_ would tell _me._ ”

“I’m not a fag.”Alex says it like he’s lying, and Armando wants to kiss him again.

“All right…”

Alex exhales, shifts his jaw with his mouth shut.“But if I was —“

It’s like he can’t say it, like he wants to say it but it’s stuck inside him somewhere.

Armando nods, steps closer.“If you were?”

“Would it — would you — if I —“Alex slumps, his forehead against the closed bedroom door.“Shit.I can’t even say it.”

“Whatever it is, I’m not going anywhere, hotshot.”As much as fate brought them together, Alex is one of the reasons he stays, one of the big reasons he doesn’t leave now that the job’s done.“I’m right here.”

“Even if I was…?”

“Even if you are.”

“That’s crazy.”Alex shifts back, looking at him.“That’s — _why?_ ”

Armando shrugs a little.“I mean, it’s not a big deal — sure, it might be, out there.But, hotshot, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty sure Charles and Erik are having a lover’s spat this week.”

Alex blinks a little, like the pieces are rearranging in his head.“…Oh.”

That makes Armando laugh, just a little, just enough.“They’re more married than most married people I know, to be honest.”

Alex grins, just a tiny bit.“You know a lot of married people?”

Armando shrugs again, smile widening.“Nah.”

It feels like some tension has lifted, pulled away from Alex like a curtain from a window, and Armando can _feel_ it, the warmth of him somehow moreso now than before.

“…So, uh.If I was — you wouldn’t care?It’d just be okay?”

Armando nods.“You could be anything, Alex.You’d still be you.”

Alex flushes, and god, that’s a pretty blush.Armando can’t help himself, he shifts a little closer.After all, Alex might be into kissing boys, and Armando wants to kiss him more than he’s ever wanted to kiss anybody in his whole twenty-two years on this earth.

“Do you…are you…?”Alex is careful, suddenly, quiet like he doesn’t know a good word for ‘fag,’ like he’s not sure there is one.

“I like what I like,” Armando says.“Sometimes it’s girls.Sometimes it’s boys.” _Right now it’s you_.He’s easy about it, because this is never easy to say for anybody, and not even he can quite avoid the way his stomach drops when he says it.

Alex blinks, considers, then nods.“That seems.Convenient?”

Armando laughs.“Is it?”

Oh, there’s that blush again.Alex looks down like he’s hiding it.“Well, I don’t know.It could be, if —“

“If there was somebody around here I wanted to kiss?” Flirting, that’s fun.He can do that.Make Alex feel good, too, maybe.

“Yeah,” Alex breathes, quiet, but Armando gets the feeling that if he touched his throat or his wrist, Alex’s pulse would be like hummingbird wingbeats.

“Yeah,” Armando agrees.“Someone around here _you_ wanna kiss, hotshot?”

Alex flushes even brighter now.“Maybe I’ve already kissed that person.”

Oh. _Oh._

Well, isn’t that convenient.

“Recently?”

“Maybe.”Alex looks like he’s about ready to burst like a tomato.

Armando slides his fingers up under Alex’s chin, grinning a little.“And I’m guessing that’s something you’d wanna do again, huh?”

“Yeah.”Alex can’t seem to take his eyes off of him, and god, that feels good.Electric.Hot.

“Then why the heck aren’t we making out, huh?”

Alex’s mouth folds into a knife-grin, and it’s the sweetest thing Armando’s ever seen.“I don’t know, why aren’t we?”

“No idea.”

So, well, they fix that.

**Author's Note:**

> headcanons briefly making an appearance here:
> 
> \- angel is a jewish lesbian because i've always headcanoned angel as a lesbian like 99% of the time, and zoe kravitz is jewish. plus erik needs someone to complain about christmas with, and angel needs friends.
> 
> \- scott is trans, so alex has no idea he's even alive, because alex thinks he has a sister, not a brother.


End file.
